Friends doing business. An Explorative Longitudinal Case Study of Creativity and Innovation in an Italian Technology-Based Start-Up

Alessandra Tognazzo () and Paola Angela Maria Mazzurana ()
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Alessandra Tognazzo: University of Padova, Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno”
Paola Angela Maria Mazzurana: Department of Economics and Statstcs, University of Udine

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, 2017, vol. 13, issue 2, 77-103

Abstract: With a process perspectve based on a framework derived from several disciplines, we theoretcally discuss how friendship dynamics in founding teams may affect a business. We develop a conceptual model that considers the different nature of exchanges in business and friendship, which may serve as a useful startng base for future investgaton (in the Appendix we report some measures of friendship). We then examine an exemplary case. We focus on group cohesiveness (a proxy for friendship), decision-making, and organizaton of an Italian technology-based frm’s founding team over tme and explore the process of generatng creatve ideas and implementng innovaton. Our speculatve fndings show that chaos does not necessarily favor creatvity and innovaton: while low group cohesiveness leads to disorganizaton because business norms prevail over friendship ones, high group cohesiveness creates structure in the organizaton that sustains the generaton of creatve outcomes by enhancing the role of friendship norms in decision-making. We explain this fnding in the light of the principle of reciprocity of exchanges.

Keywords: spin-offs; reciprocity; friendship; group-cohesiveness; creativity; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aae:journl:v:13:y:2017:i:2:p:77-103

DOI: 10.7341/20171324

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